Many retail establishments, such as grocery stores, provide inexpensive plastic shopping bags to customers for the purpose of carrying their purchases therefrom, frequently to their automobiles in nearby parking lots. The bags are then placed in their automobiles and taken to the purchasers' homes. Here, the shopping bags, filled with the purchased materials and articles, are removed from the automobiles and carried by hand into the homes--if food, usually into the kitchens of the occupants. Although plastic bags of this type are relatively strong, the carrying loops or straps thereof tend to dispose themselves in a manner that concentrates the weight of the shopping bags' contents over a small area of the palm or the fingers or both of the person carrying the bags. The straps may thus bite into or crease the hand and fingers where they bear against it, causing discomfort and pain.
Problems incident to carrying plastic shopping bags are well known, and a number of solutions have been proposed which include the provision of various types of handles for the bags.
Such devices are disclosed in the following Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 1,512,053 of Ridlinghafer, U.S. Pat. No. 1,564,101 of Nakamura, U.S. Pat. No. 2,287,329 of Maria et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,448,894 of Laus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,460,915 of Allen, U.S. Pat. No. 2,519,186 of Herbert et al, No. 2,684,797 of Schulte, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,207,397 and 3,306,507 of Wilson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,361 of Stauffer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,640 of Enersen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,596 of Fink, U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,060 of Nobakht, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,926 of Dieterich, Jr.
For the most part, the foregoing patents disclose a variety of prior art handles which have slots for receiving the loops for carrying the bags which are disposed longitudinally relative to the length of the handle, that is, parallel to the handles' longitudinal axes. Other handles, such as disclosed in the aforesaid patents to Ridlinghafer, Wilson, and Fink, disclose transverse slots for receiving the loops of the plastic bags. Whereas these latter handles serve the purposes intended, they entail certain disadvantages. For example, the market-bag carrier of Ridlinghafer requires the provision and application of a separate strip to secure the bags' loops. The transverse grooves of Wilson's carrying bags are not well adapted to facilitate insertion of the plastic bags' carrying loops therein. The handles of Fink have shaped recesses to facilitate receipt as well as to support the bags' straps, but the overall configurations add to manufacturing costs and they are not well adapted for being readily dispensed by harried cashiers. The configurations are also not well suited for receiving printed matter or advertising, in contrast to the carrying handles of Wilson. Accordingly, a need exists for a convenient, practical handle for plastic bags which, at the same time, is relatively simple, but dependable for the intended use, and which further provides marketing advantages and attractions whereby retailers find it advantageous to stock, dispense and use with their plastic bags.